Murphy: Don't criminalize criticism

The tragic and senseless shootings in Tucson, which resulted in the deaths of six people and the critical injury of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, has refocused attention upon a number of topics, including gun control, immigration reform and the care of this nation's mentally ill.

Blame has been assigned to the recent vitriolic rhetoric that has so characterized American politics of late.

In the midst of all of this, Rep. Robert Brady (D-Penn) has introduced a bill outlawing the use of "threatening rhetoric" against lawmakers. But is legislated civility really the answer here?

And if this sort of legislation is passed, what exactly constitutes freedom in this country?

The American Revolution, in which the United States threw off the yoke of an oppressive monarchy, established the first true large-scale "government by the people" in the modern era.

The basic tenets of that Revolution, delineated by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, resolved that there were "certain inalienable rights" that all men should have access to.

But that dream, so nobly imagined, was corrupted by the enslavement of millions of Americans - a hypocrisy only rectified by the U.S. Civil War nearly a century later, which resulted in the deaths of 620,000 of our citizens.

In subsequent years, we have sought to refine what constitutes the American dream by correcting other sins of its past - repudiating the genocide of Native Americans and affording the right of suffrage to women and minorities.

As a nation, we have consistently used the principles of our country's founding fathers as a guiding light, a beacon that allows us to blaze a path to a reasonable approximation of those rights of man so eloquently outlined by Jefferson.

Unequivocally, the shootings in Tucson were a repugnant act. But criminalizing the criticism of our lawmakers will not keep a person as deranged as Jared Lee Loughner from doing things that any reasonable person would not do.

More specifically, limiting the right to free speech - one of the very specific "inalienable rights" outlined by Thomas Jefferson over two centuries ago - would trivialize the bloodshed by millions of American soldiers in defense of that freedom.

The United States, founded on the bedrock of freedom, must be careful not to overreact to the actions of one lunatic to the extent that the civil liberties that we all enjoy are compromised.

The Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler burned books in order to intellectually enslave the German people, fostering ignorance in order to allow the state-sponsored brainwashing of its populace. The result? A brutal world war - and the attempted extermination of the Jewish people in Europe. Throughout history, other totalitarian governments have crushed their opposition by silencing their voices - and by criminalizing various "crimes against the state."

Do we really wish to go so far down that same route as to restrain public criticism of our public officials in a misguided attempt to rein in the next disgruntled schizophrenic who manages to buy a handgun? This is not, and should never be, the American way.

We are a nation of human beings. Like all human beings, we have made our share of mistakes. Still, we should always recall the basic tenets that our nation's founders established at our nation's birth when we seek to improve the way we govern ourselves.

Abraham Lincoln once said that America was the world's "last great hope on Earth." Today, despite the tragedy in Tucson, this still holds true. The United States remains the bulwark of the democratic ideal because it has been consistently willing to look in the mirror and question itself.

Noble public servants, from our servicemen to our dedicated representatives in government - like Gabrielle Giffords - have honored the spirit of our founding fathers by using those rights to preserve freedom in this great nation.

Let's not cheapen their sacrifices by allowing the Tucson tragedy to be used as pawns in a game of state-sponsored oppression.